UNDERSTANDING the
TRADITIONAL MEDICINE MINDSET

TALKING TO YOUR DOCTOR

When your doctor speaks of an "Alternative Therapy" for Multiple Sclerosis, what does it really mean when s/he says:

"It has never been proved to be helpful?"

It means only what it says. It does not mean the treatment is not helpful, it only means that it has never been proven to be helpful.

Why is it so important to understand this difference?

Thousands of MS patients take Fish oil and Primrose Oil supplements and feel they help. However, this has not been formally studied in MS patients and there are no results published in the medical literature.

N-Acetyl Cysteine has been proven to increase the levels of Glutathione in the body. Glutathione is proven to be critical for removing Mercury from the body and for protecting Myelin from free-radical damage. However, these exact results have not been formally studied in MS patients and there are no published results in the medical literature.

Well, of course these treatments have never been proven to be helpful, they have never been formally studied.

In a recent lecture, a noted eye specialist talked about alternative therapy for adult mascular degeneration (AMD) a leading cause of blindness in older people. He cited published studies, explained the findings and said that many of the studies could not be trusted because they did not involve enough patients or were not done according to strict scientific standards.

He concluded by saying that although there are good theoretical reasons why some of the alternative therapies might work, they had never been proven to be helpful. All this really means is that the studies that have looked at these treatments were not reliable, it does not mean that the therapy is not helpful.

This same physician said that although he cannot recommend many of the alternative therapies to his patients he believes that eating a good healthy diet may be the best protection against developing AMD.

He recommended a healthy diet because it supplies many of the same supplements that were already studied. Even though he cannot scientifically say that "Taking X as a supplement has been proven to be helpful" he can say that "Taking X as part of a healthy diet may be helpful."

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR DOCTOR

1.	Is this supplement safe for me to take?
2.	Does it make sense that it might help?
3.	Are other doctors or patients using it and getting results?

If the answer to these questions is Yes, then whether or not it is "Proven to be Helpful" may not be the most important thing to consider.